Influence of Age, Size, and Temperature on Metamorphosis in the Starry Flounder, Platichthys stellatus

Abstract

The onset of metamorphosis of starry flounders (Platichthys stellatus) reared at the New England Aquarium was more strongly related to size than to age. For three of the eight crosses the regression of standard lengths (SL) of the progenies at metamorphosis on age was not different from 0 at the 10% significance level. For the other five the regression coefficients were negative and different from 0 at the 5% level but only 11.2% or less of the variation in SL at metamorphosis was accounted for by age. Progeny from one of the crosses were reared at two temperatures; at the higher temperature the time to metamorphosis was greatly reduced, but there was only a small change in the SL at metamorphosis.Key words: metamorphosis, age, size, development, demography, temperature, starry flounder